Geochicas is a group of Spanish-speaking women from OpenStreetMap formed before SOTM-LATAM in Sao Paolo in 2016, around the pre-event discussions about the very low participation of female in proposals.

Derived from this observation in the Telegram channel of OSM-LATAM, the discussion about the low participation of women in this regional chat as well as in the community in general, in its local, regional and global scales was broadened.

Following this observation, @SeleneYang (Argentina), @Mapanauta and @Mapeadora (Mexico) decided to organize together a series of activities in this SOTM to initiate a collective reflection on gender inequality in this regional community, raise the key issues, develop perennials lines of work.

These lines were:

The decision to have in every SOTM-LATAM a space for reflection on gender equity in the form of a talk and a panel with the assembly, looking for continuity

Form a group of women with a reserved chat called Geochicas, created in the conference with about 30 attendees

Have a proactive communication effort in the OpenStreetMap LATAM networks to keep the debate on gender equity active

Promote in the group of women peer-to-peer teaching of technical and theoretical topics

Promote our continuous participation in data and free technologies events, and a systematic participation in the SOTMs.

From 3 people the group grew during Sao Paolo- SOTM event to 30, and brings together, a year and a half later, around 150 people of diverse origins, from numerous communities, with very broad profiles.

In this line of action, I participated on behalf of Geochicas in the State of the Map 2018 in Milan, with a presentation of the group’s activities and achievements, and presented the results of our survey on gender representation in OSM.

With the intention of contributing to the construction of an OSM agenda on equity, we collaborated with @Heather Leson and Kate Chapman @Wonderchook in this session to brainstorm among the attendees about opening our communities.

A mixed assistance and of all countries opined around 3 premises: I will do; We should stop doing; We should start or continue.

The ideas expressed can be summarized and grouped as follows:

I will:

I will give an active female role model in the community of labels

I will pay attention to the concerns of women in the community

I will promote the organization of community activities, with attention to a diverse participation, and take care of the conditions of safe access

I will get involved in local communities and invite women to join

I will participate more in debates about the community, I will listen and not judge

I will promote the development of easy-to-use tools to contribute to the map

I will be alert to violent tones and harassment in communication channels

I will have more reflection on the subject of privileges and inequity

I will inquire about COCs and be more sensitive to the issue of respectful treatment

Consider and take advantage of diverse abilities, in the modes of contribution to OSM

We should stop:

To communicate the results with a ranking or competition system. we have to commit ourselves more to inclusion, to value different skills and different centers of interest

To consider the essence of OSM as a technological project

To have a prejudice about the motivations for contributing

To have a limited vision of genders, and expand the focus to all genders

From supporting the foundation until a complaint system of harassment is complied with

Stereotyping people, groups, nationalities

To conceal or tolerate harassment, provocations, abuses and toxic modes, all forms of discrimination

To pretend that inequality and discrimination in OSM does not exist and is not a problem

To limit the concept of diversity to gender diversity, expand the focus

We should start to:

Listen with empathy and respect disagreements and differences in vision, interest, and values

Measure changes systematically, periodically, with surveys or other instruments

Improve the mechanisms for the integration of new people

Analyze the fine mechanisms of exclusion of marginalized groups towards debates, community, activities and OSM events. Have a constant search for integration

Have a financing council to know projects and proposals with a need of development, and be able to channel resources towards a greater diversity

Have a solid strategy of awareness on diversity and equity, diverse interests, with a much broader understanding (gender, LGBTQIA, ages, physical conditions, etc.), address racial discrimination, work on access to marginalized communities

The board must have a specific work axis on diversity and clear objectives

Promote our allies

Have a more motivating perspective and also make visible the efforts and changes

Collaborate with allies and stakeholders with a clear stance in favor of diversity and equity

Develop safe spaces for women and other groups

Build a Code of Conduct, moderations, and an anonymous reporting system, and systems to identify micro-aggressions by the community

Expand the debate on the topic to share experience and co-create solutions

Support initiatives focused on women, such as #letgirlsmap, @OsmGirls, @geochicasosm, develop them at all scales

This collective exercise of brainstorming has been invaluable. It allows us to better understand, with an expanded and diverse vision, the dimensions of the diversity and equity problem in OpenStreetMap. It allows us all to guide our actions in all the sectors where we participate and expresse a voice from the community towards the OSM Foundation to demand a development of the agenda that does belong to everyone.

Presenting a subjective selection of the ideas communicated or paraphrasing them IMO kind of defeats the idea of the whole exercise to collect diverse ideas and to let people express themselves how they feel about things directly. I think it is also a matter of fairness towards those who wrote their ideas on a sticker there to faithfully reproduce what they wrote and not just engross their contribution in a selective summary.

The exact titles of the sections by the way - as visible in the photos - were:

Thanks for your comment Imagico.
This is not a subjective selection of ideas but the synthesis and an effort for grouping the ideas written on papers during the brainstorming exercise, with no omission, as the intention of the diary is and says. This is not the raw data, listed in the pad you mention, indeed.
This is a synthetic note on the participation of Geochicas at the SOTM. The mail-list on diversity gives the access to the pad and everybody is invited to make other analysis with the results.
I’ll clarify this intention to summarize in my diary if it wasn’t clear enough, and correct “I will stop” by “we should stop”.
Thanks

A summary or paraphrasing of communication is always subjective. Just to give you an example: In the original ideas there was

We should stop (to) look at OSM as a tech project.

You write:

We should stop to consider the essence of OSM as a technological project.

I do not necessarily disagree with the interpretation but this is definitely not semantically the same statement. If i had written that i would probably like to have it reproduced accurately and any subjective interpretation being indicated as such.

There are also statements i do not find covered in your summary - most obvious the somewhat ambiguous “stop the insulting men”. I don’t want to try giving a full list of ideas you missed because that would be my subjective interpretation of the ideas.

Thanks. As I said, this diary makes a synthesis, an all synthesis result in a generalization of the ideas. It would be good to make another diary just citing specifically the post-its. I or somebody else from the diversity list should do it, and link this synthesis to the exact transcribed list. You have a good point.